‘Super Cruise’ takes on real-world traffic

Detroit, June 5, 2013

Super Cruise is capable of semi-automated driving including hands-off, lane following, braking and speed control under certain driving conditions. The system is designed to ease the driver’s workload on freeways only, while in bumper-to-bumper traffic and on long road trips, the driver’s attention is still required, said a statement.

Research and development in active safety has already resulted in the inclusion of advancements like the innovative Safety Alert Seat and Driver Awareness and Driver Assist features, it said.

“As we continually upgrade Super Cruise’s enabling technologies, it is important to expose the updated system to different environments,” said Jeremy Salinger, research and development manager for Super Cruise. “The best way to achieve reliable performance is to gather as much data as possible in the conditions our customers will experience.”

“Super Cruise is designed to give the driver the ability of hands-free driving when the system determines it is safe to do so,” said John Capp, GM director of Global Active Safety Electronics and Innovation. “Before we introduce this capability on a production vehicle we must put the system through rigorous testing and technology refinement.”

Super Cruise will also use a series of alerts to communicate with the driver based on human factors research conducted on test tracks and in GM Research and Development’s 360-degree motion-based driving simulator specifically designed to induce realistic driver behaviors. It could make its way into production later this decade, said a statement.

“Drivers may be tempted to engage in secondary tasks during semi-automated driving, and we need to make sure we understand the changing conditions,” said Daniel Glaser, GM Safety Center engineering specialist.“In our simulator studies we are developing techniques to manage secondary task behavior to assist in our development of techniques for the road.” - TradeArabia News Service